General Analytical Solution to Consolidation of Unsaturated Soil with Vertical Drain considering Drain Resistance

Abstract

This paper presented a general analytical solution to consolidation of unsaturated soil with vertical drain considering drain resistance. Based on Fredlund’s one-dimensional consolidation theory and the equal-strain assumption, the coupled governing equations of excess pore-water and pore-air pressures are first decoupled by introducing two new variables. the method of eigenfunction and undetermined coefficients are then used to obtain the general solution under the drain resistance condition. Moreover, the good agreement between the equal-strain results and the typical free-strain results confirms the validity of the proposed solution. The consolidation behaviours, concluding average excess pore-air and pore-water pressures, are investigated against the drain resistance and the ratio of influence radius to vertical drain radius.